HOROWITZ STILL SHAKEN AFTER ON-AIR GUN INCIDENT

It was the ultimate irony. The man who has told us to "fight back" on television for more than eight years was, for once, left totally helpless.

While delivering his live, daily consumer spot on TV station KNBC in Los Angeles two weeks ago, David Horowitz -- the 11-time Emmy winner and host of the popular syndicated show Fight Back! With David Horowitz -- had a gun held against his neck by a man who asked him to read a message about aliens and the CIA.

Though he was cool at the time, the incident left the TV reporter shaken to the point where he has revamped his security. "I've suddenly become a major personality with this incident and there are copycat nuts around," he said.

Strangely, while the incident has left Horowitz -- no pun intended -- a little gun-shy, it has also made him a celebrity in many people's eyes. "I can't go anywhere without people coming up and asking me for an autograph or saying, 'Hey, we're proud of you.' "

The controversy still raging is whether the news director should have pulled the plug as he did, nine seconds into the incident. Recalls Horowitz, "A minute into my reading -- and let me tell you, I've never tried to read so well in my life -- the gunman wanted to know if we were still on. He said, 'Are we?' And I thought, 'This is it guys. I'm finito.' "

Horowitz bluffed. He said that he saw his life flash before his eyes. "You think, 'Am I going to get out of this?' " Smiling, he added, "Then you think, 'I really should have bought my wife that little painting she wanted.' "

The gunman, Gary Stollman, turned out to be wielding a phony pistol. He also turned out to be the son of a former station employee. "I called his dad (Max Stollman, who was KNBC's 'Friendly Pharmacist') and told him I was really upset about Gary, but that I wasn't pressing charges because he needs help -- not to be sent to jail."

After the incident, the station held a news conference. "I didn't want to go," Horowitz said. "I wanted to go home to my wife, who was hysterical. But I stayed on to be a team player. But by the time I got home I felt like a sponge that had been wrung out."